Mr.

VenuGopal Balakrishnan
Executive Director Ginco General Trading Flat no 424 Al Arbash Building Damascus street, Al Qusais, Dubai

Interview Summary
According to John C Maxwell A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. Entrepreneurs are the real leaders who are willing to take the risk in life and travel that extra mile which distinguishes them from the rest of the world. Mr.Venugopal is one such person who has challenged destiny and has become a successful entrepreneur in life. When we approached him regarding the interview, he was more than willing to spare his precious time and invited us to his office in Al Qusais. The interview extended for around one hour and he gave us really some of the most valuable insights into the concept-Entrepreneurship. Mr.Venugopal has been in the Middle east for the last 30 years and is settled with his family. Ginco General Trading Co has now become the market leader in Energy Drinks sector under his able leadership. Mr.Venugopal started of the discussions with a briefing about his background and early career. He was born in a middle class family in Kerala, India and had his primary education there. Later he left to Mumbai to pursue his college education during the late seventies. Unfortunately he couldnt complete his graduation and he decided to travel to the land of opportunities to pursue his dreams. He started of his career as a sales guy and worked in different domains and companies. He got the real break in his career when he joined Ginco trading and at that time he was handling the card business with Etisalat and other mobile service providers. His growth in Ginco was boosted his hard work and interpersonal skills. The experience he had in handling various roles including sales helped him to learn more about the market and he believes that an entrepreneur is basically a salesman.

Later he became the partner for Ginco in its Construction business and that was the most testing time in his career. As the company was doing good and getting business from all parts of UAE the worst thing happened Recession. He considers this as the most difficult phase of his career and admitted that he had to go through a lot of mental turmoil overcoming this. But he was not a person who was willing to surrender and withdraw. He decided to face the situation calmly and analyse it. Venugopal realized that he needed to expand the domain and enter into a new business line in order to survive. While Ginco had certain existing contracts in hand which enabled them to survive Venugopal and his team started working on the new project. They identified that food industry is one sector which is not going to be much affected by recession. A market study and research helped them to figure out energy drinks sector has tremendous growth opportunities. Thus with financial support from the parent company Ginco Venugopal launched the Energy Drink company. Venugopal and his team worked really hard on this new venture and they could attain breakeven in a span of just 13 months. Now he is a more happy and satisfied person than he was 3 years back when recession shook the world. The company is doing extremely good business and they are doing the distribution and marketing of the energy drink being manufactured in Malaysia. Venugopal mentioned that even though he doesnt have a role model he gets inspired by people who are committed and sincere in their work. He is motivated by people who knows how to get things done fast and efficient. He also looks up on the MD of his parent company as an elder brother and learnt a lot about doing business and work. Even though he wasnt planning to become an entrepreneur destiny took him to this point. Passion, he says is the driving factor for him and the zeal with which he was explaining that to us showed the kind of enthusiasm he had. He denied to admit that he has taken the company to a point that he wanted to and said that its still and on-going process of growth and establishment. He mentions that the market knowledge he had about the UAE Market and the brand name of Ginco were the most important strengths of the new venture. He considers winning a huge contract from Etisalat when he was in the Card business as the biggest achievement of his career. Recession was the saddest period and he considers that as the only major failure in his career. Venugopal believes that it is very important to have the right partner while doing a business and there need to be mutual respect, understanding, confidence, trust and faith among them. Also he said he was lucky to have the right team to work with and had the appropriate people doing each job for him. He feels that this is a very important factor while building a company.

When asked about how he faced the crisis situations in his life he told us Nothing is the end. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. The never say die attitude he has is his biggest strength and he considers this as his biggest learning from his life. He told us to face the challenges in life with a smile and believe in ourselves. Another important aspect that he mentioned during the interview was the support that he got from his family and especially his life partner. He believes that it is very important to have a supportive and understanding family behind you to overcome the challenges and face all the hurdles in life. He admits that he had to do a lot of trade-offs in his life to achieve the goals that he pursued. Sacrificing the time that he could have spent with his family and keeping aside his personal interest and needs for the dream he was chasing. But at the end of the day he is a happy man to have reached where he stands now. But Venugopal believes he still has a long road ahead of him. He plans to expand and grow his company further and doesnt think of retirement even at this age of 60. As long as the passion is burning he can go on for any number of years to achieve his goals. Now he has the support and assistance of his 2 sons who are helping him in his business. His younger son has already started a new company in Dubai which does general trading and contracting.

Leanings and outcomes

"My policy is to learn from the past, focus on the present, and dream about the future." Donald Trump
Interview with Mr Venugopal made me understand the above statement by Donald Trump. Mr Venugopal has had his low points in his career when he joined as a partner in a construction company that wasnt performing too well due to recession. However he bounced back with his own firm Ginco general trading LLC involved in distribution and marketing of energy drinks in UAE showing true characteristics of a good entrepreneur. Even during the recession he did not lose hope and took the risk of which shows his passion and persistence in opening a successful venture. An Entrepreneur must be willing to take risk and take full responsibility of his/her own actions. As Mr Venugopal mentioned that he carefully evaluated not only the rewards but also the risks which would have come along once he pursues his plan. His decision of starting the company could result in him lose all his savings and his position in the construction company as it agreed to provide him with financial support. However he had a vision in his mind and an opportunity in his hand which he didnt want to let go.

Another important learning that came out of the interview was that its important to have an idea based on the trends that are existing in the market and to try to find out the gap and fill it. However this general idea needs to be converted into a proper business plan. Mr Venugopal had problems earlier in convincing the construction company he worked for to invest in his business because he did not have a proper business plan, but once he understood the importance of it, he carefully formulated a professional business plan which made it easy for him to convince them. As Mr Venugopal said during the interview My people are my biggest assets only shows how important it is to select the right team, right people and right combination of skill sets. According to him without the support of his team members and his family it would not have been possible to start his own business .Hence relationships and contacts play an important role in running a entrepreneurship successfully. According to Mr Venu Gopal one can have the best business plan with huge financial support but still business can fall down in instant .Hence any new entrepreneurship is a bit of a gamble and luck plays an important role. He concluded the interview with his final thought which says it all-To know how to get your customers , think like a customer.